Retro-fitting the Extended Gooseneck

[HaftonAl]

I’m trying to upgrade my gooseneck from the original 2-rivet version to the newer 3-rivet elongated version. The new version is not pre-drilled but has a cast/scribed vertical line to help centre any new hole. However, having taken off the old one (carefully!) the holes in the mast do not align with this vertical line. Thus the only solution would appear to be that of drilling fresh holes into the mast. Intuitively, that doesn’t sound a good idea in an area of high stress.

A forum search shows a similar question being asked back in 2018 and the enquirer was advised to speak to Matt Biggs. Whilst I could do that I just wondered whether there was any accumulated experience from members over the last 4 years to help guide me?

Alastair

[HaftonAl]

Since posting this query, no-one offered an answer. However, I have moved on and my boat now has the extended gooseneck fitted to it, mainly due to the help of an engineering friend, also a Supernova helm!

This is how we did it:

1. Having drilled out the rivets from the old fitting and tidied the holes and their surrounds (even a small amount of protruding metal will impact the fit of the gooseneck), we marked the position of the new fitting to ensure it maintained the same relationship to the white band on the mast as did the old one.

2. We then used carefully sized plates (ie matching the inner surfaces of the 'wings' of the new fitting) of thin clear plastic glued over the existing holes in the mast and perforated them with a hot soldering iron to make a template.

3. These templates were themselves placed over a thin but rigid GRP cast of the inner surface of the new gooseneck fitting and drilled. The clear plastic templates were discarded, having played their part. The GRP template was checked against the existing mast holes, found to be accurate then placed against the matching surface of the new fitting and drilled from the reverse side. Their centres did not match the scribed line (as per my original post).

4. The new gooseneck was then riveted to the mast using stainless rivets. We opted not to insert an additional rivet (the factory fitted ones show 3 rivets).

As ever, pictures would have explained better but we didn't think of that in our excitement of making things work!

Alastair

[Doug.Rankin]

Hi All
Below is a link to some pictures of the second attempt without the GRP template,

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ja4fkgvu4nz68 ... k.pdf?dl=0

hope this helps

[paulmcnally]

Just checked your Dropbox link and I get "This file has been deleted". Can you repost it please? Many thanks

[Doug.Rankin]

New link to the PDF File


https://www.dropbox.com/s/af2vkfpdjwc4n ... k.pdf?dl=0

[paulmcnally]

Thanks Doug. Pretty comprehensive!